Part 85: Lanka - Turn 30

Turn 30 - Maneuver Warfare is Exciting (if you're a Hinnom Fan)


Ok, let's recap since this was ages ago according to Hinnom's update timeline.

I had pushed into Hinnom territory while having had made temp peace with Dawkish. Got as far as sieging the Hinnom cap.
Unfortunately at that point Dawkish got subbed out and the sub did not continue the peace.
I left a raider group in Hinnom territory and went to cut off Sauro's army with mine. The idea is I can push south with the raiders and thanks to the historical lack of coordination between Hinnom and Sauro I'll be able to surprise Sauro with raiders from Hinnom territory.
Now it is turn 30...




This guy teleported onto my raiders, beating the 5 Palakasha. They do in fact get to retreat in the magic phase, since at that point I still own adjacent provinces. Teleporting thugs is one of the best counters to small raiding groups. I was hoping I would be out of Hinnom territory before he got them.

If there's one single thing that Hinnom could have done to turn around the war earlier, it would be obtaining flying and teleporting thugs earlier. With some focused research (and you know, not none...) you can have a movement spell and const 4 gear deployed by turn 20.

So long as I'm talking about mistakes and since the war is moving into new phase,

Hinnom really overestimated his troop capabilities in the early game. They're good troops, on par with mine even, but I countered early with magic and he did not. There's also something to be said for focusing all your resources. Despite how dire the situation got for Hinnom at some stages, I don't think he ever withdrew expansion parties, or threw his full or even partial mage corps into the fray, or diverted fort gold for troops. Had he committed better to total war, I seriously doubt I would have ever made it off my island, and might even be dead right now. Builds will probably say he did commit fully, but I call bullshit on that if he does.






Then all my provinces on the Hinnom side are taken and the remaining units lost. So much for those raiders.




Breaking a scout siege in Lanka.




Sauro withdrew his army.



Turn 31




Haha yeah right you don't give a shit at all. And neither do I, because even my lowliest priest has 18 hp and therefore won't die to lightning.



This is a very good event for a tiny empire like mine.



Hinnom continues to attack with Barbs.



Sauro had a temple here.



Among the commanders is his prophet with a Jade Knife and blood slaves. Evidence that he is blood sacrificing. The Jade Knife is a B1 N1 item that increases the number of slaves he can sacrifice by 2. This means on a H3 prophet, 5 slaves sacrificed = 10 temple checks a turn. My entire empire generates like 5. Best to keep this shit out of my territory.

KILLCOUNT
Yes, I am going to count temples razed.



I split my army into 3 parts to cover all 3 places Hinnom can move his barbs to. Since he seems to be using them aggressively they should die.

Turn 32



Hinnom has been sending me messages every now and then that I totally failed to show to the readers. I frankly have no idea what he is talking about half the time.




I have 88 death gems stockpiled this turn. These cost 12D apiece. That means last turn I had 109. When you are fighting constantly like I am not spending your gem stockpiles is a crime.




Ganas are ethereal undead chaff. They're hard to hit in melee, cheap, and can't hit shit because they have a "magic resistance negates" weapon. For non-save-or-die effects mr negates translates to "shit".



The new raiding style Sauro player is super annoying.




It's a real shame I can't cut retreats properly, because driving these guys off is all I ever do it seems. Also 8 of my guys are now blind (yes I checked). I believe builds said something like "all of them" which is totally a 150% accurate quote, so he's wrong about that.
Cutting retreats is most effective on an open map, or when you have flying thugs or teleporters. In fact, I play best on open maps, so the closed terrain and the lack of resources is really cramping my style.



Predictably the Barbarians suicide.

KILLCOUNT


Attacking the Melqart's province and patrolling the cap should prevent it from attacking. Against Sauro I've sent my remaining Archers:



Frankly, these guys have been completely useless for several turns now. Sauro's demonstrated smarter tactics, so fire archers won't work, and Hinnom is now mainly using thugs, which archers are completely useless against.
I made this decision understanding that unsupported they're unlikely to even kill PD.

Next turns: I don't remember, but the awesome is on hold for now while I power up

Also expect another ~3 turn update tonight or tomorrow